Harm
by DramaLexy
Summary: Post-"I Do" fic. Running from her problems does Callie more harm than good.
1. Chapter 1

**TITLE: Harm**

**SUMMARY: Yet another post-"I Do" fic. Running from her problems does Callie more harm than good.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own, you don't sue.**

**A/N: My third story this summer! I am eternally grateful to the Fosters for letting me find my writing mojo again. This fic gets a bit darker than my other stories; you've been warned.**

* * *

Sleeping late on a Sunday morning was typical at the Foster house. The moms were usually the first ones up and about, but the morning after their wedding, they both remained cuddled in bed for a while. They kept staring at their new rings and recounting their favorite memories from the previous night.

"It'll be good for Mariana to have a big sister," Lena softly decided. "I think Callie's already made her think about things differently."

"She's made everyone think about things differently," Stef agreed. "It was so good seeing all the kids so happy together yesterday."

"Mmm. That's our family now."

"I know. I can hardly believe it."

Lena glanced at the clock. "Ugh, I really should get up; I promised Jesus I'd make cinnamon pancakes this morning."

"Ooh, yummy. Although if you don't want to scar our children, you should probably put some clothes on first..." Lena smacked Stef's shoulder before she got up and went to retrieve her pajamas from wherever they'd landed across the room.

After another minute of lounging in bed, Stef also got up and got re-dressed. She wanted to peek in on the kids before going to make some coffee. The boys were all still sleeping, as was Mariana, but she frowned when she realized that Callie's bed was empty.

Lena was already in the kitchen when Stef got downstairs. "Is Callie down here?" she asked her wife.

"I don't think so. She's not in her room?"

"No."

"Bathroom?"

"Empty." Stef looked out the window to see if their foster daughter was playing her guitar in the backyard, but there wasn't anyone out there.

"Well, where is she?" Lena wondered.

"I don't know." Stef grabbed her cell phone off the counter and opened the app she used to track the kids' phones. The map showed that Callie's phone was likely still in the house. "What the..."

"What?" Lena asked. Stef showed her the screen. "Try calling it." The blonde obliged, but they didn't hear a ring tone going off. They started looking around in the living room and dining room to see if they could hear the phone buzzing. Lena found it sitting on the end table closest to the front door - on top of a folded sheet of paper. "Stef!"

The blonde quickly joined her. "You found it?"

"Yeah, and a note."

_I'M SORRY I HAD TO DO THINGS THIS WAY. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING _

_YOU'VE DONE FOR ME, BUT YOU'LL BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT ME. _

_PEOPLE LIKE ME DON'T GET TO HAVE HAPPY ENDINGS. - CALLIE_

"Oh my God. She's gone, isn't she?" Lena asked.

"It sure sounds like it..." Stef turned and went back upstairs to the girls' room. Her heart sank as she opened the closet and found that half of it was empty.

"What's going on?" Mariana sleepily asked as she woke up.

"Did Callie say anything to you last night?" Stef asked.

"About what? Wait, where are her clothes?" the teen wondered as she looked at the closet.

"I don't understand," Lena said as she stood in the doorway. "I don't get what happened. Why would she leave?"

Mariana looked confused, but then realized Callie's bed was empty. "Where did Callie go?"

Stef sighed. "We don't know."

* * *

All of the kids were quickly awakened and the family assembled in the kitchen. No one knew anything about Callie's disappearance, and the moms were starting to get really worried.

"Who is Callie friends with at school?" Stef asked the older three.

Jesus shrugged. "I don't know."

"No one, really," Mariana added. "Except for Wyatt."

Lena nodded. "Of course. Do you know where Wyatt lives?"

"Nowhere," she replied. "I mean, his house got foreclosed on. They moved out over a month ago; I don't know where he's been staying since then."

"I'll check with the school," Lena said as she pulled out her cell phone.

"It's Sunday," Stef reminded her.

Lena rolled her eyes in frustration. "Okay, I'll go down there and see if his file got updated." She headed upstairs to get ready.

"Can you think of anywhere else that she might go?" Stef asked the kids.

"The beach?" Mariana suggested. "She likes it there."

"You might want to look at Wyatt's old house, actually," Jesus spoke up. "That's where Lexi hid when she ran away."

Stef nodded. "Okay. I'm going with Mama and we'll start looking. If any of you think of anything else, call us, all right?" The kids all nodded.

Left alone in the kitchen, the foursome all just stared at each other for a moment. "I can't believe this," Jesus finally said.

Jude sighed. "She's so stupid," he muttered under his breath. Why couldn't his sister just be good? She'd just promised him that she wouldn't be selfish anymore, and then went and did this!

"We don't know what happened," Brandon tried to gently chastise him.

Mariana suddenly looked up, fear written across her face. "What if it was Liam?" she asked. "What if he did something?"

Brandon shook his head. "I don't think so," he tried to quiet her, but Mariana was adamant.

"He's hurt her before! Mom should go make sure he didn't do something to her now."

Jude looked up, confused. "What happened to her before?"

Brandon shot his little sister a look. "He didn't know," he told her.

Mariana looked down. "Sorry."

"What did Liam do?" Jude demanded. Jesus looked similarly confused, but Mariana already knew her twin hadn't gotten the whole story. She'd never imagined that Callie hadn't told her baby brother, though.

Brandon sat down next to Jude. "You know that Callie and the Moms have been doing things with lawyers and stuff recently, right?"

He nodded. "She said it had to do with her probation."

"Yeah... it didn't. It had to do with Liam. When you guys were living with him, he hurt her. More than just getting you thrown out of the house." Jesus had a horrible feeling that he knew where this was going; he wordlessly took his twin's hand. Mariana squeezed his fingers.

Jude, however, hadn't figured it out yet. "What did he do?"

Brandon knew it wasn't supposed to be his job to tell the younger boy this story, but he wasn't going to lie to him. "One night... he came in her room and... he raped her."

Jude's mouth fell open. "What?"

It still got worse. "When she tried to go to his parents... instead of helping her, they kicked you guys out."

Jude sat silent for a long minute. No one else knew about the fight that he and Callie had had before the wedding. How could he have said those things to her? How could he have blamed her for what had happened to them with the Olmsteads? It had to be his fault that she'd left; why would she want to have anything to do with him?

As Jude started to cry, the other three teens all rushed to comfort him. "We're going to find her," Jesus promised. "She'll come home."

"Why didn't she tell me?" was the only question Jude could voice.

Brandon hugged him. "I don't know, bud. Maybe she thought she was protecting you."

He cried harder.

* * *

**TBC..**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for the feedback I've gotten so far! To the person who anonymously left a review - I know the fight in the episode came after Jude caught Callie with Brandon, but I think he was mostly mad because the situation with Liam (hooking up with a foster brother and then getting kicked out) was repeating itself. I can't imagine he would have been so harsh if he knew the whole story.**

******A/N 2: This chapter and the next contain mature subject matter dealing with self-harm. Read at your own discretion.**

* * *

By the time the Foster family had discovered that she was missing, Callie was on her way out of California. She enjoyed seeing the sign that welcomed them to Arizona. "I don't think I've ever even left the San Diego area before," she told Wyatt, "Let alone gone this far."

"Really?" he asked, surprised. Callie shook her head. "So, what prompted your sudden interest in globetrotting?" he casually inquired.

She shrugged. "I don't know... Thought I'd see new places."

Wyatt smirked. "And you figured you'd start with Indiana?"

"There's a lot of states between here and there."

"True... What are you running away from?" he pressed a little more.

Callie turned her attention back to the window. "Nothing."

"Come on. If I'm taking you across the country with me, you can at least give me one real answer."

There was a long pause before she spoke again, and Wyatt wondered if he'd pushed too hard. "I always hurt everyone," Callie finally said. "I'm like poison or something."

"I don't believe that," Wyatt replied.

She scoffed. "Why not? I've hurt you, too, haven't I?" He didn't answer, which said all she needed to hear. "See? It's just what I keep doing to all the people around me. It would have only been a matter of time before Stef and Lena figured out what a big mistake adopting me would be."

"They were going to adopt you?" Wyatt was perplexed; Callie hadn't mentioned anything about that when he said goodbye to her in school.

She nodded. "They just told us yesterday morning, before the wedding."

"But now you're leaving? Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Yes," she softly confessed. "I mean, I'd thought so. But I realized that it would have just made everything more complicated."

Wyatt had a feeling he knew who in that house was complicating things for her. "The fear won out, huh?" he wondered, referring to the conversation they'd had at the hospital after Stef got shot.

"What?"

He shook his head. "Nevermind. So what about Jude? You're just leaving him behind?"

"Jude's better off without me."

"You can't really think that, can you?"

"If I'd stayed, I would have ruined the best thing he's ever had in his life. So I couldn't stay. I've spent 8 years pretending that I was capable of taking care of him, but I'm not. I'm just a kid! And he deserves better than me. At least now, I can't take that chance away from him."

* * *

Just as Stef and Lena were about to leave the house, the doorbell rang. For a moment, both women got their hopes up, and neither could fully hide looks of disappointment when they found Dana, Stewart, and Sharon on the front porch instead of their foster daughter.

Sharon frowned when she saw her daughter's expression. "Good morning to you, too," she sassily told her as they came inside.

Stef sighed. "Sorry, Mom." The newlyweds had completely forgotten that their parents were supposed to be joining them for breakfast.

"What's going on?"

Lena looked back to see that all the kids were standing in the doorway to the kitchen, having also heard the doorbell. "Um, Callie's missing," she told the grandparents.

"Missing?" Stewart wondered. "What happened?"

"She left in the middle of the night. We're not sure why or where she's gone. We were about to go out and start looking."

"We'll help," Sharon instantly volunteered.

Dana looked over at her grandchildren. "Have any of you eaten?" she asked. They all shook their heads. "All right, I'll stay here and make them breakfast."

"I'll go with you," Stewart told Lena.

"And I'll ride with you," Sharon offered to Stef.

Both women nodded. "Thank you," Stef told all three parents. "Be good for grandma," she warned the other kids before they headed out the door.

"We'll go to the school and then check the beach over there," Lena told Stef as they walked out to their cars. "If I get a new address for Liam, we'll look there, too."

"Okay. We'll go by Liam's old house, the community center, and anywhere else we can think of."

Lena nodded and she and her father got in her car and left. Stef climbed behind the wheel of the family SUV, while Sharon got in the passenger side. However, instead of starting the car, Stef just sat there for a long moment, staring straight ahead.

"Are you okay?" Sharon gently asked.

Stef shook her head. "No, I'm not. I don't... I don't understand why Callie would do this." Yesterday had been the most amazing day of their lives, and now everything had been plunged into chaos. The change had left her reeling.

"I don't understand, either, sweetheart. Maybe she was afraid?"

"Of what?" One of the most frustrating parts of foster parenting was not being able to reach a child that so badly needed help. "What did we do wrong? She seemed so happy yesterday! Maybe we shouldn't have suggested the adoption? Or maybe we should have talked to her more first?"

"Or maybe it was something completely different," Sharon suggested. "I don't know. She may not even totally understand it herself. From what you'd told me before, it sounds like Callie's got a lot of things to sort out in her head."

Stef sighed. "I know that she is a deeply wounded girl and she's been putting up a brave front for a long time. We had so many ideas for how we could make life better for her, but now..." She turned to her mother as her tears started to fall and she suddenly felt like a child herself. "What if we can't find her, Mom?"

Sharon hugged her. "You cannot focus on that, Stefanie. We're going to find her."

"How can you be so sure?"

She offered a small smile. "Because that wounded little girl has you in her corner. And she deserves the life that you've imagined for her."

* * *

Callie and Wyatt drove for a couple more hours before they stopped near Phoenix to get gas and lunch at McDonald's.

"You want to sit over there?" Wyatt asked once they'd placed their orders and gotten their drinks. He pointed to a table in the corner.

"Um, sure. I'm going to go to the bathroom first." He took her drink for her and went to sit down while she headed for the ladies room.

As Callie washed her hands after she'd finished, she regarded herself in the mirror. She'd never been alone like this before. Any other time that she and Jude had been separated, she'd known that she was going to find her way back to him. There hadn't been any other option. But this time, there was no going back, not that he'd really want her to. She could imagine Jude standing there next to her, looking at her with hatred after he caught her with Brandon. Or Lena watching her with such pity after that horrible joke of a trial. Or Stef's expression of barely concealed horror after she told the moms about Liam. She had tainted their lives with her own, and hated the reflection in the mirror. She felt like she was going to explode as the remorse and guilt continued to build.

Callie went back into one of the stalls and took a couple deep breaths. She knew she was about to cross a line, but couldn't make herself stop. It was a line she'd gone over before, after she and Jude had been tossed out by the Olmsteads. Getting a beating from another kid at the emergency group home had taught her two things: 1) she never wanted to go to another group home again, and 2) enduring physical pain made her guilt about her mistakes feel almost tolerable. Once her busted lip and bruised cheek from the beating had healed, Callie started giving herself new injuries. She deserved the pain and the marks reminded her of how badly she'd screwed up - and how much she never wanted to screw up like that again.

But she'd gotten too comfortable in her life with the Fosters and her body didn't have any more fresh scars. She'd almost made a colossal mistake, and that deserved punishment. She dug through the front pocket of her bag for the only thing she'd taken from the house besides clothes and a few pictures - the pocket knife that had been attached to Jude's backpack. After their father's incarceration, Callie had owned the knife, but she'd decided to give it to her brother a year earlier. She hadn't shown him the trick to getting it open, out of concern about what he might do with it. That worry seemed ironic; she'd already used it for some pretty bad things.

Callie grabbed the edge of her shirt and pulled it up slightly. Just above the waist of her jeans, where no one would see, there were a few half-inch lines of pink scar tissue, leftover from two years prior. She managed to get her knife open and scratched a couple new marks around the others. The flashes of pain made her wince and bite her lip, but she figured that she really deserved worse. This would have to do, though, and she grabbed some toilet paper to wipe away the blood. As she inspected her handiwork, she did feel a little better. Now she had physical reminders of her screw-ups again.

% ^ % ^ % % ^ % ^ %

By the time that she left the bathroom, their food was already on the table. Wyatt looked up at her in concern as she rejoined him. "Hey, are you okay?"

Callie nodded and forced a smile. "Fine."

* * *

**TBC...**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you all for your responses to the last chapter. I was really nervous before I posted it. I enjoyed seeing your hopes/guesses for future chapters; hopefully you'll like how things eventually turn out.**

**A/N 2: There's more mature subject matter in this chapter dealing with self-harm. Read at your own discretion.**

* * *

Back in San Diego, Stewart and Lena returned to the house a half hour after Stef and Sharon did. Dana had made food for all of them, but Stef was just picking at her sandwich. The other kids were sitting around the kitchen, anxiously waiting.

"Anything?" Stef asked her wife when Lena came in the back door. She shook her head. "So they never gave the school another address?"

"Unfortunately, it's worse than that," Lena replied with a sigh. "Wyatt got pulled out of school on Friday; he's moving out of state."

"Do you think Callie could be with him?" Dana asked her daughter as she handed her a plate.

"I don't know. If she is, we have no idea where he's going; there wasn't any information on where he'll be enrolled in school next."

"You need to file a police report," Stewart told the moms.

"We can't," Stef replied.

"They can look for his car, put out alerts. If she's run off with this boy and left the state - "

"We don't want that to end up in her CPS file if we can help it," Lena told her father.

"What happens if her social worker finds out you didn't report it?" Dana wondered.

Lena glanced over to where Jude was sitting between Mariana and Jesus. Keeping this from Bill could jeopardize their ability to adopt the Jacobs siblings, but she still was unwilling to do anything that could make Callie's life even harder - at least not yet. She and Stef couldn't choose to protect one child at the expense of another. "We'll cross that bridge if we come to it."

"She's on probation," Stef added, sharing a fact that Lena's parents hadn't been aware of. She saw Dana's mouth fall open slightly. "The situation wasn't what it looks like on paper, and Callie got the short end of the stick. But if the police are the ones to bring her back home, they'll be taking her back to juvie. So we can't do a report. Not yet."

Stewart finally nodded. "Okay, then. Where do we look next?"

* * *

As afternoon turned to evening, Wyatt and Callie entered New Mexico. After a little bit, she started to notice that Wyatt was wiping at his eyes a lot. "Are you tired?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, kinda."

"We should stop, then." Earlier in the day, she had volunteered to do some of the driving, but he insisted that he could handle it.

Wyatt finally nodded. "Yeah, probably. Find some food, too."

He pulled off of Interstate 40 at the first small town they found. On their meager budget, junk food from a gas station convenience store was all that they could afford to eat. "I don't have money for a hotel or anything," Wyatt confessed as they got back in the car. "I was just going to sleep in here."

"That's fine," Callie told him. "I've had worse."

There was a gravel lot down the road from the gas station; Wyatt parked the car toward the back, away from the road. They opened the hatch of the SUV and sat back there to enjoy the evening air. The sun had recently set and the sky was still colorful.

"You want some Twizzlers?" Wyatt asked, offering the package.

"Sure. Want a peanut butter cracker?"

"Okay."

Callie's eyes turned back toward the sky once their trade was complete. "I wish I had a camera."

Wyatt pulled out his cell phone and gave it to her. "You'll take a better picture than I would anyway." She snapped a couple shots of the sky and the landscape, then handed it back. Wyatt thumbed through them while eating some chips. "These are nice."

"Thanks... Do you think anyone's going to care that we're parked here?" Callie asked before taking a sip of her soda.

"Nah, it'll be fine."

"Okay... I didn't say it before, but thanks for letting me come with you."

Wyatt shrugged. "Keeps me from being bored on the drive."

Once they were done eating and and doing a little stargazing, Wyatt stuffed all their trash into one bag and stashed it in the back to throw away later. He then grabbed a couple blankets out of one of the boxes and they settled back into the front seats. "Have you ever been camping before?" he asked Callie.

"Um... well, one time, my last foster father locked me and Jude out of the house for the night, so we had to sleep in the backyard. Does that count?" Wyatt just gaped at her. "Sorry. I guess that's a little dark for our normal banter, isn't it?"

"N-no, no. I mean... that's horrible, but... I'm not sorry you told me."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I want to actually get to know you."

Callie shook her head. "No, you don't."

"I do," he protested, but she shook her head again.

"Nobody wants me once they actually know me."

"I'm not like everyone else," Wyatt pointed out, but Callie didn't respond. "You want me to tell you something about when I was a kid? Trade stories?"

"I'm kinda tired."

Wyatt slowly nodded. "Yeah, okay. Me, too. Goodnight."

"'Night."

But Callie wasn't actually ready to go to sleep; her mind was still too active. She quietly waited for Wyatt's breathing to even out, to make sure that he was asleep. After carefully pulling up the edge of her shirt, she prodded one of the cuts she'd given herself earlier in the day. It stung badly.

It had taken a few months after everything with Liam before she'd no longer felt the need to hurt herself. Of course, that was because her and Jude's foster father had started doing it for her. She'd taken every punch, kick, and belting believing it was what she deserved. She'd been so stupid and cost her brother the best home they'd known. Jude was the innocent one and she was the perpetual screw up. And now, because she'd started to forget that fact, she'd almost ruined things for him again. Jude had been right; she ruined everything.

Callie tried not to shift around too much as she pulled her knife out of her pocket. She couldn't see much in the dark car, but she ran her finger across the initials that were carved into the wooden handle. Normally, she didn't like thinking about her parents or the night that they'd both been suddenly taken away. Her self-destructive streak had definitely come from her father. He'd taken the first steps to rip their family apart, and she'd now been forced to finish what he'd started.

She opened the knife but just held it at her side for a long moment. She didn't want to have to do this. She didn't want to feel this way anymore. Why couldn't she just be like everyone else? Why couldn't her first family have lasted forever? Why couldn't someone have found her worthy of loving sooner? Why did it always end in disaster when she tried to keep from feeling so freaking alone?

The blade suddenly broke through her skin without her even realizing it. She gasped in surprise before clapping her free hand over her mouth so she wouldn't wake Wyatt. Tears were stinging in her eyes but she wouldn't let them fall. She wasn't allowed to cry now, just like she'd never let Phil or the kids in the group home or the girls in juvie see her cry. She'd left behind the only people that she'd let see her tears, and it was her own fault. And now she had to figure out how to live with that.

* * *

**TBC...**


	4. Chapter 4

It was a long night at the Foster house. Stef and Lena had gone out again after dinner to look around for Callie, but they were starting to fear that she was far away by that point and they had no idea where. The kids had all sat around in the living room to wait for word. Once Jude fell asleep on the couch, it was an easy decision that everyone else would camp out downstairs, too. Sleeping bags on the living room floor was becoming a tradition whenever they had a family crisis.

In the morning, Lena called in a personal day from school and let them know all the kids would be absent, too. The grandparents were supposed to be leaving town that day, but Sharon decided to postpone her flight back to Florida in order to keep helping. However, Stewart and Dana still needed to get home for their work.

"Promise me that you'll call if you need anything," Stewart told his daughter when they came over to the house to say goodbye.

"I will," Lena agreed.

"And let us know as soon as you find her. When, not if."

She tried to smile at his faith and optimism - emotions she wasn't really feeling at the moment. "We will."

Dana hugged her daughter once her husband moved aside. "It'll work out, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Mom. For everything."

"You know we'd stay if we could."

"I know. I'm glad you guys were able to get away in the first place."

"Of course."

Once she had closed the door behind them, Lena just leaned against it for a moment. Stef came over and they held each other, trying to draw strength. "I think we should go look for her one more time," Stef quietly suggested.

"Where?"

"Everywhere. Anywhere. I just... We have to do something." She couldn't sit idle while Callie was still out there.

"Okay... You know we're going to have to call Bill, right?" Lena carefully pointed out.

"I know, but... not yet." Stef's eyes were pleading, and Lena quickly gave in. They'd protect Callie as long as they could.

"Okay. Not yet."

* * *

_everybody's got a different story_

_everybody wants to give their selves away_

_but I'm still afraid_

_if we can stay out of their field of vision_

_if we can keep ourselves a half a world away_

_ah, honey we'll be okay..._

Callie realized that Wyatt was smirking as she softly sang along with the radio. "What?" she asked him.

"Nothing."

"Are you making fun of me?"

"Who, me?"

They were somewhere in the Texas panhandle. That morning, after they'd found some breakfast, changed clothes, and refueled the car, they'd continued their journey east. Callie was trying her best to pretend that yesterday hadn't happened. She had lots of practice at making herself look like a normally functioning person when in actuality she felt like she was falling apart. Pretending made the people around her less nervous. Currently, her feet were propped up on the dash as she listened to the only station that the SUV's half-broken radio had been able to pick up.

"I'm just enjoying the music while we have it," she told him. There had been long stretches where static was the only thing that would come from the speakers.

"I know," he replied. "And I'm enjoying you enjoying it."

"My mom would always sing to us," Callie recalled. "She loved music. She'd keep a radio in the kitchen; we'd listen to it when I helped her cook."

"I can picture that: you running around a kitchen with a little apron on."

She smiled. "I didn't have an apron; I'd just make a mess." There was one time that they'd made peanut-butter cookies and gotten flour EVERYWHERE. When her father had come home to the mayhem after a night with his friends at the bar... She stopped herself from going any further. Remembering those kinds of nights wouldn't help her tenuous control over herself.

Wyatt noticed as her smile faded away. "So, music and cooking are two of your many hidden talents, huh?" he spoke up.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Are you going to get another guitar?"

"I don't know. Hadn't really thought about it."

"You already have one waiting for you, you know. And a home, and a family."

Callie put her feet down and turned toward the window. "No, I don't. Not anymore. I wrecked that."

"You know they'll miss you," he tried again.

"They'll get over it."

"You'll miss them."

She shook her head. "I don't deserve them."

_the world can be so cruel_

_but I will sing for you_

_this cradle song, all night long_

_this cradle song_

_this cradle song..._

* * *

While the moms were out looking for Callie again, Sharon and the kids had a late breakfast of just cold cereal and fruit. After they'd finished and cleaned up the kitchen, Brandon noticed that Jude had escaped to the backyard and was sitting up in the big tree. He went outside to talk with his soon-to-be little brother.

"You okay?"

"Sure," Jude half-heartedly replied.

"You know that Callie leaving wasn't about you, right?" Brandon tried to reassure the younger boy. "I mean... leaving you behind."

Jude glared down at him. "You don't know that." No one else had any idea about what he'd said to his sister when they fought. He'd almost told them about it a couple times, but it was hard enough to think about, let alone say out loud.

"I know Callie," Brandon countered. "And I know there's nothing in this world that's as important to her as you. She must have just... Everything probably got to be too much, and she got scared. I wish she'd talked to me, or the moms, or somebody."

"Maybe she was mad at you," Jude bitterly suggested, hoping that blaming someone else would hurt less than blaming himself. "'Cause you were being like Liam."

"I am NOTHING like Liam," Brandon quickly protested. "I would NEVER do what he did to her."

"He was nice to her, too. And he would hold her hand and kiss her. She would tell me to go away and leave them alone. And then everything got ruined."

"That was Liam's fault. And his parents'. Not Callie's."

Jude frowned. "I know... But it's going to happen again."

"Callie's been scared of that, too," Brandon assured Jude. "She's been so afraid of messing things up for you." It suddenly dawned on him - that's why she left. HE really was why she was gone. She hadn't believed that Brandon would keep his promise and not let her and Jude get sent away. Frankly, given her history, she had no reason to trust him.

The door to the kitchen opened and Jesus stuck his head outside. "Moms are back," he told his brothers.

"Did they find her?" Jude wondered, unable to keep the hope out of his voice. Jesus shook his head.

Brandon looked up at his youngest brother. "I'm going back inside. Are you coming?"

Jude shook his head. "I think I'm going to stay out here for a while."

"Okay." Once he was in the kitchen, Brandon glanced back at Jude, sitting sadly in the tree. The moms were in the family room; Lena was sitting on the couch holding Mariana while Stef paced the room. The whole family was hurting, and Brandon knew that he was responsible. Callie had been right - nothing would come from his feelings for her except trouble.

* * *

**TBC...**

**song credit: "Cradle Song" by Rob Thomas**


	5. Chapter 5

That afternoon, Stef and Lena looked up from their conversation in the dining room when Brandon stopped in the doorway. "Hey, B, what's up?" Stef asked her son.

"It's my fault," he quietly told her.

The moms looked at each other in confusion. "What's your fault?" Lena asked.

"Callie. Leaving. It's my fault."

Stef stood up. "I don't understand. Did you know that she was going to leave?"

"No. I didn't know anything. But... I think I'm why she left."

"What happened?" Lena asked.

Brandon sighed, his eyes downcast. "I know you said that foster kids can't hook up or anything - "

"Oh, jeez, Brandon!" Stef interrupted, already certain where this was going.

"We didn't do anything! Not like that, at least. But... I liked her - like her," he corrected himself. "I couldn't help it. And at first she said that nothing could happen, but... she liked me, too. She kissed me, before the wedding. Well, I kissed her, too. It was amazing, but I think that scared her, and that's why she left."

Stef sighed. "Thank you for telling us."

He nodded. "After all the stuff that happened before, I didn't want there to be secrets."

"We appreciate that." After lingering for another awkward moment, Brandon headed upstairs to his room. "Why is it that they always come clean too late to stop the drama?" Stef murmured.

Lena was still staring after her stepson in shock. "Do we know ANYTHING about our kids anymore?" she asked. It seemed like they kept getting blindsided over and over again.

"Some days, I wonder..."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to find Callie," Stef quickly replied. The knowledge of what their children had been up to didn't change the fact that they needed to bring their foster daughter home.

"Obviously, but... if there really is something going on between her and Brandon, we can't go through with the adoption."

Stef leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. "I know."

"So what are we going to do?"

* * *

By the time that night was starting to fall, Callie and Wyatt found themselves near Tulsa, Oklahoma. They got dinner at a Jack in the Box and Wyatt found an empty parking lot to stay in for the night. Stargazing was harder since they weren't in the middle of nowhere, so they quickly gave up in favor of just getting some sleep.

Around 1AM, Callie woke up to the sound of banging on the window next to her. A light was being shone into the car. "Hey!" a voice called. "Wake up!"

For a second as the flashlight moved around, Callie caught a glimpse of the person outside of the car and absolutely froze. Her eyes completely convinced her brain that it was Liam standing there.

Wyatt turned the key enough in the ignition to be able to open the window. "Is there a problem?" he asked the tall, blonde-haired police officer.

"Yeah, this is private property and you're trespassing," the cop replied. "Can I see your license and registration?"

"Sure." Wyatt took out his wallet and reached over Callie to open the glove compartment. Once he'd retrieved the registration, he handed both items over. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Callie was inexplicably motionless, staring at the cop in fear.

"You're a long way from California," the officer pointed out.

"Yeah. Our family's moving to Indiana." Wyatt knew things would go much easier if he pretended Callie was his sister instead of a underage runaway with a criminal record that he'd picked up on the side of the road.

The cop looked down at Callie. "Do you have ID?" he asked.

"She doesn't have her license yet," Wyatt smoothly answered for her.

"Where are your parents?"

"Our mom came out last week."

"And your father?"

"If you find him, let us know."

The cop eyed him for a long moment, then handed back his license and registration. "Find somewhere else to spend the night," was all he said before walking back to his patrol car.

Wyatt rolled the window back up. "Are you okay?" he asked Callie.

"Y-yeah."

"You're shaking," he pointed out.

Callie looked down at her trembling hands, as though she hadn't even noticed. She clasped them together in an attempt to make it stop. "I just... I had a dream."

"About what?" She didn't answer. "Come on, Callie, talk to me!" He started to reach for her hand, but she violently jumped away. "What the..."

"I'm sorry," she told him. "I'm sorry, I just... He looked like someone."

"Someone you knew?"

She nodded. "My foster brother, from a couple years ago."

"Okay. I take it you didn't like him or something?"

"He raped me," Callie ground out.

Wyatt froze. "What?"

"That's my big, dark secret that you wanted to know so badly. My foster brother raped me!"

"Oh, damn... I'm sorry."

"Now you know how screwed up I really am, okay?" Callie tried to curl up in her seat, pulling away from him, but the loose end of the seatbelt dug into her right side. "Ow."

"What happened?" Wyatt asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

Before she could think, before she could stop him, he was reaching to see if she'd hurt herself. As she tried to move away, her shirt shifted, exposing the skin on her right side. Wyatt froze. Even with just the dim light from streetlights outside, he could see her wounds. One of them had started bleeding again. "Oh, God..." he murmured.

Callie jerked her shirt back down. "I said I'm fine," she spat.

"Did you do that, or did someone else?" Wyatt wondered. His heart was pounding. It was obvious that some of those cuts were very new.

She tried to force herself further back into the corner of her seat, further away from the only person currently available to help her. "It doesn't matter," she told him.

"Yes, it does! If you're hurting yourself - "

"I deserve it!" she exasperatedly shot.

"No, you don't, Callie. Nobody does." Wyatt reached for her again, and was very glad that this time she didn't move away. She let him gently pull her into his arms as her tears started to fall. "You were there for me when I really needed someone," he reminded her. "And I'm going to do what you need. I'm going to take care of you, okay? I promise."

* * *

After Callie had calmed down some, Wyatt drove further down the road to another parking lot. Once he was certain that she'd finally fallen back to sleep, he quietly opened his door and crept out of the car. As he walked a few steps away, he searched through the contact list on his phone for the right number to call. At least with the two-hour time difference between Oklahoma and California, it wasn't quite so late back in San Diego.

At the Foster house, Brandon reached for the phone when the land-line in the kitchen rang. "Hello?"

"Can I speak to Stef or Lena Foster?"

"Who is this?"

"It's Wyatt."

"Where the hell are you? Is Callie with you?!" Brandon wondered.

Wyatt looked back toward the car. "Yeah, she is."

"Everyone's been going crazy looking for her. Is she okay?"

He sighed. "No, not really. That's why I'm calling. I'm really worried about her..."

* * *

**TBC...**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thanks to everyone for the feedback for the last couple of chapters. I love the community of readers and writers on this site.**

* * *

In the morning, when Wyatt and Callie woke up, they got Egg McMuffins for breakfast, filled up the gas tank, and hit the road again. She noticed that he was quieter than he'd been the previous day, but assumed that was her fault. Like she'd originally told him, no one wanted her after they actually got to know how messed up and broken she was.

She spent the quiet morning thinking up plans for what she was going to do after they got to Indiana. Obviously Wyatt wasn't going to want her around. Maybe she could keep going east, to New York or something? Or maybe go to Chicago? She could find someplace to work, just enough money to be able to live off of. She couldn't see much of a future for herself, but that was the price she'd pay for doing right by her brother. As long as Jude had the future he deserved, her life didn't matter.

At one point, as they neared St. Louis, Callie realized that Wyatt had turned off of the main interstate they'd been driving on since Oklahoma City. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"It's supposed to be faster to go around downtown," he easily told her. Callie didn't have a reason not to trust him, so she settled back into her seat to watch the view out the window. She started getting suspicious, though, when she noticed signs for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport - and then realized that Wyatt was following the signs.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Why are we going to the airport?"

He sighed and wouldn't look at her. "Because you're going home, Callie."

She shook her head. "No, I'm not. I can't!"

"You have to."

"How could you do this?" she furiously asked. "You lied to me!"

"I told you that I would take care of you. This is the best way I know how. You need them, Callie; it's where you belong."

Callie was prepared to grab her backpack, jump out of the car, and bolt as soon as they came to a stop in front of the terminal. She could easily lose Wyatt in the crowd, and then she'd figure out a new travel plan for herself. However, when she opened the car door, she was NOT prepared to see Stef and Lena standing outside of the building, waiting for her.

Wyatt turned the engine off and just waited. For a seemingly eternal moment, no one moved. But then Stef and Lena came over to the car and both women wrapped their arms around Callie. "We love you, sweetheart," was the first thing Wyatt heard them say, and he couldn't help a little smile. If he had ran away from home, the first things his mother would tell him was how long he was grounded for and not to ever scare her like that again. The Fosters really were the kind of family Callie needed.

However, Callie shook her head as the moms continued to tell her how glad they were to see her, pushing her way out of their embrace. "No," she told them. "You don't want me. You can't want someone like me."

Lena brushed a stray lock of hair out of the teen's face. "Well, it's too late for that," she replied. "You're stuck with us, now, sweetheart. We're not going anywhere without you."

Callie just stared at her for the longest time, trying to process that statement. The fact that the moms were there right now - that they'd flown all the way to Missouri to get her - was something that spoke volumes. Nobody had ever cared enough about her to come looking across the city, let alone halfway across the country.

Finally, she broke down in sobs. "I'm sorry," Callie whimpered over and over. "I'm so sorry."

Lena held her, rubbing her back and smoothing her hair. "We know, sweetheart. It's going to be okay."

Wyatt got out of the car and grabbed Callie's duffel bag from the back. Stef went over to take it. "Thank you," she told him, "For calling us."

He nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner... I know I probably don't have a right to say this, but... I hope you're going to take good care of her. She... she needs somebody to treat her right, be there for her."

"You've been a very good friend for her," Stef tried to assure him.

Wyatt shrugged. "I love her."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "You have my word; we'll take good care of her."

Callie had calmed down somewhat, and stepped away from the car with her backpack in her hands. "What happens now?" she asked her foster mothers.

"Well, we've got a flight back home in a couple hours," Lena told her. "And then... we'll have some things to work out. But we're not giving up on you, and you can't give up on us."

Callie nodded. "What about you?" she asked Wyatt.

He was focussed on his shoes. "I guess I should probably get going. I've got a lot of ground to cover still."

"Am I ever going to see you again?" she wondered.

Wyatt shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe. I'll always just be a phone call away. You can keep me up to date on the latest drama at Anchor Beach," he added with a grin. As if either of them had ever cared about school gossip.

Callie smiled a little, too, although fresh tears were threatening to fall. "Thank you," she told him. "For everything you've done. You are the best friend I've ever had." She wrapped her arms around him tightly, and Wyatt just held her for the longest time. Finally, he pulled back.

"You should probably go with your moms," he quietly told her. "You don't want to miss your flight."

Callie nodded. "Drive safe."

"I will." She watched as he got back into the car and drove out of her life.

* * *

Inside the airport, Stef, Lena, and Callie got their boarding passes and went through security. They stopped in the food court to get some lunch before continuing on to their gate. Stef and Lena noticed that Callie wasn't really talking, but they didn't want to push her yet. The past few days had been a whirlwind of emotions for everyone in the family.

At one point, about 40 minutes before their flight, Callie abruptly stood up. "I'm going to the bathroom," she told the moms as she threw away her trash.

Stef also got up. "Yeah, I probably should, too." She noticed a look of concern flicker across Callie's face for a moment, but then it was gone and the blank mask was back in place.

They left their bags with Lena and walked in silence down the hallway toward the ladies' room. Before Callie could go inside, Stef took her arm. "I want you to give me whatever you have in your pockets," she quietly told the teen.

Callie frowned. "W-what?"

Stef shook her head. "Please don't. Don't try to lie to me and don't pretend this isn't serious. I know where you are right now, Callie. I know what it's like to despise the person that's staring back at you in the mirror. To think that you're poison to the people you love most. To want to punish yourself for choices you've made - and for things that are outside of your control. There... there was a time when I really considered doing things to myself that were not healthy." She set her jaw, forcing back the memories. "But I had my son depending on me, and that pulled me back from the edge. My family made me strong. And your family is going to pull you back, too."

Callie choked on a sob. "I'm not like you."

"You are," Stef assured her with a smile. "So much. I knew it almost as soon as we met. You are not worthless, love, and one day you're actually going to believe me when I say it."

After the longest moment, Callie reached into her pocket, pulled out her knife, and gave it to Stef with only a slight hesitation. She didn't want to have to lie anymore, and didn't want to feel the pain. Most of all, she really wanted to get to that day.

_everybody's got their own opinion_

_everybody's got a place where they belong_

_like a favorite song_

_I don't want to be a faded memory_

_I don't want to be the ghost that you can't shake_

_I want to be the real thing_

_the world can be so cruel_

_but I will sing for you_

_this cradle song_

* * *

**TBC...**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So... I didn't think of the issue with the knife and TSA in the last chapter. Oops. Let's just pretend the world is a much nicer place to live in.**

* * *

It was almost 10pm when they landed back in San Diego. Sometime during the flight, Callie and Stef had fallen asleep leaning against each other. Lena smiled when she noticed them as the plane taxied to the gate. Despite the fact that Lena had been the first one to meet and connect with Callie, she knew their relationship had been stunted by that dangerous night when they'd rescued Jude from the kids' former foster father. Although she'd gotten over it in the months since, she originally hadn't been able to help unfairly associating Callie with danger to her family. However, that same night had seemed to solidify Stef's attachment to the teen, and Lena had become very glad for that. Hopefully their bond would make some of the difficult days ahead a little bit easier.

"Hey," Lena quietly said as she shook their shoulders to wake them. "We're home." She took the small bag that the moms had brought for their one-day travel adventure. Stef pulled Callie's duffle out of the overhead bin since the teen still looked semi-conscious. As they walked out from behind the TSA security area, they saw several familiar faces waiting from them - Sharon and the rest of the kids had come to the airport.

"Welcome home," Brandon told Callie as he stepped forward to hug her. He had wanted to go along with the moms to Missouri to get her, but their last-minute plane tickets had been expensive enough without having to add one more. Brandon had therefore made sure that he and the rest of the family were able to see Callie as soon as she was back in California.

Mariana was next in line to greet their foster sister. "I missed you," she told Callie.

"We're glad you came back," Jesus added as he also gave her a hug. The moms smiled as they watched the four teens together; their family had been reunited. But then Stef noticed that there was one person missing. Jude was hanging back behind the older kids, just staring at his sister. When Callie looked over at him, he turned away, refusing to meet her gaze. Callie's face fell.

Sharon also saw the silent exchange between the siblings. "I think we should get everyone home," she suggested. "It's been a very long day."

Stef nodded in agreement as she wrapped her arm around Callie's shoulders. "Are you ready?" she softly asked the teen.

"Yeah. Let's go home."

* * *

Mariana decided to ride in the car with the moms and Callie, but Jude chose the SUV with Brandon, Jesus, and Sharon. The ride was quiet, with nobody quite sure what to say. Once they all got back to the house, the youngest of the family disappeared upstairs after a quick, "I'm tired."

"Jude!" Lena called after him, but Callie stopped her from following her little brother up the steps.

"I've got it," she told their foster mother.

"Are you sure?" Both women knew that she was pretty emotionally fragile at the moment and didn't want to add anything else to the list of what she was dealing with.

But Callie just nodded. "Yeah. This is on me."

Jude was lying on his bed in his room. When he saw Callie in the open doorway, he moved to his side, turning his back to her. "Jude, stop." He didn't respond. Callie sat down next to him. "Talk to me."

With a huff, he turned back over. "You lied to me," he declared. "You lied to me and you left me!"

"I know. I thought I was doing what was best for you. For both."

"You were wrong," he shot back.

"Yeah... I make mistakes sometimes, Jude. I'm sorry."

"I know. I do, too." He heaved a sigh. "Brandon said that Liam hurt you. Really bad."

Callie looked away. "Yeah, he did."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Well... because I was ashamed."

"Why? It wasn't your fault."

She gave him a teary smile. "I didn't understand that at the time."

"I would have told you."

The simple honesty of that promise took her breath away. "I wish I'd known that."

"What do you always tell me?" Jude asked.

She frowned. "Um... I don't know. To always be yourself?"

He shook his head. "Besides that. You always say that you'll love me no matter what. But you didn't trust me the same way."

Her tears spilled. For so long, her brother had mostly just been her responsibility, her little burden. She was always so worried about how the environment he was in would affect the kind of person he'd eventually grow up into. But she'd totally missed the fact that he'd already started to become his own person - and apparently, a pretty decent one. "All I can say is that I'm sorry, Jude. I'm just... I'm sorry."

Jude sat up and hugged her; he'd always hated watching his sister cry. "I'm sorry, too. You're the only one who's always been there for me. I shouldn't have said those mean things to you. I know you care about me."

"I do," she agreed as she held him tight. "More than anything else. I thought that if I left.. we wouldn't have to be a package deal anymore, and you would get to stay here."

"But I don't want to be anywhere without you."

Callie smiled and kissed his forehead. "Okay." The numbers on the clock caught her attention. "It's really late; you should start getting ready for bed."

Jude shook his head. "I'm not tired yet. Stef or Lena will tell me when it's bedtime."

It wasn't the first time that he had deferred to their foster mothers' authority instead of hers. In the past, it had made Callie upset - she was the one that had raised him. But now she realized that maybe this was how it was supposed to be. "You know," she told her brother, "Things could be different for us. Once we get adopted, I mean. We'll have someone else that's taking care of us instead of having to take care of each other. Maybe that'll let us have a better relationship than before." It could be nice to just be Jude's sister instead of his pseudo-mom.

He just shrugged, contemplating the idea. "Maybe."

She smiled. "I'll see you in the morning, okay? Goodnight."

"G'night." She got up and started to leave. "Hey, Callie?" Jude stopped her as she got to the doorway.

"Hmm?"

"I'll always love you, no matter what. And I'll tell you that whenever you need to hear it."

She smiled. "I'll always love you, too."

* * *

When Callie stepped out into the hall, she was surprised to see that Brandon was waiting for her. "Hi," she said somewhat self-consciously.

Brandon smiled. "Hey. I'm glad you're back."

She nodded. "Yeah, me, too."

He was about to say something else, but Lena came up the stairs behind them. "I think it's bedtime, guys. For everyone; it's been a rough day."

Brandon nodded. "Okay. Goodnight," he told them as he disappeared into his room.

"Goodnight," Callie echoed. Lena took her hand for a minute.

"Goodnight, sweetheart. Welcome home."

Once she'd gone into her bedroom, Callie didn't initially see Mariana, but then realized that the younger girl was doing something in their closet. "There!" Mariana exclaimed with a smile as she saw her foster sister. "That looks a lot better."

Callie was about to ask what she was talking about, but then she saw it for herself. While she'd been talking with Jude, Mariana had unpacked for her. All of her clothes were back in the closet, and her backpack was on the floor next to her bed.

"Like you never left, right?" Mariana asked.

Callie just nodded. "Yeah." For one night, she could pretend that life was that easy.

* * *

**TBC...**


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, Callie woke up far earlier than she'd thought she would, considering how exhausted she'd felt the night before. Sunlight was gently streaming through the window, and she spent a minute looking around the room. Her room. It was mostly decorated with Mariana's things, but it was still partially hers. Callie had convinced herself she wasn't ever going to see this room or this house again, but now... here she was. Home.

There was a soft knock on the door, and then it cracked open. Lena smiled when she saw that Callie was awake and motioned for her to join her so they wouldn't wake Mariana. "Good morning," she told her foster daughter once they were alone in the hall.

"Morning."

"Stef and I wanted to talk with you for a bit before everyone else gets up. Let's go downstairs, okay?"

Callie took a deep breath. She'd known this conversation had to be coming, and wasn't really looking forward to it. But there wasn't any way to avoid it. "Okay."

* * *

Once they reached the kitchen, Lena went over to start the coffee maker. "Do you want a cup?" she asked Callie as she took mugs out of the cabinet.

She blinked in surprise. "You're actually offering me coffee?"

Lena smiled. "I have a feeling we're all going to need it."

That didn't do much to alleviate Callie's concern, but she wasn't going to turn her down. "Okay."

The machine had just started brewing when Stef joined them in the kitchen. She had a small box in her hands, which Callie realized was a first-aid kit. "One of us is going to check you out," Stef told her in a tone that left no room for discussion. "Do you have a preference on who?"

Callie shook her head and picked up the hem of her shirt without protest. Stef forced her face to remain expressionless as she saw the new and old wounds on her right side. The latest ones were red, raw, and angry-looking. It would have been bad enough if someone else had done this to Callie; the fact that she did it to herself made Stef's heart ache. Her eyes met Lena's for a brief moment, and she knew her wife understood; they were starting down a rough road.

"This is probably going to sting," Stef warned, trying to keep her voice steady, as she got out peroxide and some cotton balls. The last thing they needed right now was for Callie to end up in the hospital with an infection.

The teen shrugged. "I can handle it."

Lena took her hand in support. "How long have you been cutting?" she quietly asked.

"It started after everything with Liam."

"Were you ever suicidal?"

Callie tensed as she felt the burn from the peroxide, but she didn't make a sound. Lena sympathetically squeezed her fingers. "No," she finally said when the pain faded. "It was never about that. I could never do that to Jude. I just... I deserve it."

Stef looked up from her spot kneeling beside Callie's stool. "No, love, you don't."

"We want to help you," Lena promised, "But the most important thing is whether you want to help yourself. You've already taken the first steps. Being able to talk to us and trying to figure out why you're hurting yourself is a good start. We were also very glad you gave Stef your knife."

Callie sighed. "I know I shouldn't cut myself, that it's not normal, but... sometimes I just feel so terrible and that's how I have to deal with it."

"That's what we'll start working on," Lena told her. "Other ways to deal with those feelings. For starters, we found a list of other things you can go besides hurting yourself when you get overwhelmed."

Callie glanced down to watch as Stef put a bandage on her side. "Like what?" she asked.

"Writing in a journal, drawing, ripping up paper..." Lena suggested. "We'll figure out what works for you."

"If you need something physical," Stef told her as she started repacking the first aid kit, "I could use a jogging partner. Or we can go beat up on a bag at the gym."

Callie nodded. "Okay, I can try."

"We're not expecting an overnight cure," Lena assured her. "We know this will take time and work. But we'll do whatever we can to help. I've also been looking into therapy programs for you. Besides talking with us - which we are always willing to do - that can be a place for you to express what you're feeling and learn how to cope. And I know that you're not a big fan of therapy, but... you can at least give it a chance."

"Okay," she agreed.

"Brandon was also here when Wyatt called," Lena continued, "So he already knows, too, and can be someone else for you to talk to, if you think it'll help. The twins and Jude don't know, and we'll leave it up to you whether you want to tell them or not. Just know that we're all going to be on your side."

"There are going to be a few rule changes around here," Stef warned her. "At least for a little while. I hope you can understand that some of the trust we've all been working on is going to have to be rebuilt. More than anything else, we want to make sure that you're safe. You're probably not going to like what that means sometimes, but please remember that we want you to get better."

Callie managed a small smile. "The knife slot in the silverware drawer is empty, huh?"

"Yes," Lena told her in all seriousness. "Among other things. Until we figure out alternative behaviors for you, we thought it was best to remove temptation."

They all sat in silence for a long moment. Stef took Callie's free hand. "What are you thinking right now, love?"

She sighed. "I guess I'm kinda scared. I don't want to let you down again - "

"This has nothing to do with letting us down," Lena interrupted. "This is just about you, Callie, and your well-being."

She looked away. "I wish I wasn't me. I wish I could just be normal."

"Normal is overrated," Stef replied with a smile. "But we know what you mean. We'll do anything we can to help you, love."

"We can't help if you run away from us, though," Lena pointed out. "We know you're not accustomed to anyone being permanent in your life, but we want to change that. Family does NOT quit on family, is that clear?"

Callie nodded. "I understand. I'm sorry."

"Running away from problems doesn't make them go away," Stef added. "It just makes them bigger... While you were gone, Brandon talked to us. And he told us about what's been going on with you two."

Callie's heart stopped. "He did?" she choked out.

"Yes," Stef replied, "And before you have a coronary, I hope that the first part of this conversation proves that we have no intentions of sending you away. We're in this for the long haul, okay?" Callie couldn't manage to do anything besides nod. "That said..." Stef continued. "We wish we'd known about this earlier, because we do have a problem. It would potentially be both illegal and unhealthy for the two of you to be in a relationship if we adopted you."

"So you have something else to think about," Lena told her, "And you can take all the time you need. We're letting what happens next be up to you. If this was just a crush and you don't have any interest in pursuing it, we can go ahead like we were planning. But if it is something you think it IS worth pursuing, then we won't start the adoption."

"But what about Jude?" Callie instantly asked.

"You are two individual people," Stef replied. "I know it probably hasn't seemed that way for the past eight years, but... If Jude wants to stay, our offer definitely still stands. But you have to decide what's going to be best for you, love."

"We can still foster you until you turn 18," Lena proposed. "And you and Brandon ought to still follow CPS rules and wait until then, but... we aren't stupid."

"Waiting a year and a half is a bit too much to hope for," Stef agreed. "So, as long as you're not totally blatant about it - and as long as you have more sense than Jesus and Lexi - we'll look the other way."

Callie was stunned. "Really?"

They both nodded. "It's your decision."

* * *

**One chapter left...**


	9. Epilogue

They talked for a few more minutes before the twins came downstairs, both apparently starving to death. While Stef and Lena started cooking breakfast, Callie slipped out of the kitchen and went back upstairs. In the hallway, she could hear faint music coming from Brandon's room; he was practicing piano. She quietly opened the door and slipped inside in order to listen.

"You can just come over here," he spoke up at one point while still playing.

"You heard me?"

"Yeah, there's a spot in the floor that creaks."

Callie smiled as she walked over to the doorway to his music nook. "What's this song?"

"Something new that I'm writing," he replied as he stopped and turned around. "It's about you."

She blushed. "You shouldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a mess."

"No, you're not. I know things are complicated, but... part of that is my fault. And the other part... you'll figure it out. We're all going to be here for you."

"Yeah, that's what your moms said."

"Our moms," Brandon corrected her.

Callie shrugged. "That's kind of up in the air at the moment."

His eyes widened. "They're not sending you away, are they?" He took a step toward the door, all ready to go argue her case. Callie put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"No, they're not. It was a really surreal conversation, actually. They said that if we wanted to give 'us' a try, they wouldn't adopt me right now, but I could stay. And we could try being together."

"Are you serious?"

"That's what they said."

Brandon took her hand. "Is that what you want?"

"I don't know… They'd still take Jude, and that's what's important."

"You're important, too. Even when you don't feel like it."

Callie tried to smile. "Figuring out how to deal with what I'm feeling is a new project."

"I know. While you were gone, I started thinking that you were right. Everything turned into a mess because of us. I don't want to make anything harder for you than it already is. There are probably a lot of reasons why 'us' is a bad idea."

She slowly nodded. "For that moment when we kissed… it felt right and wrong at the same time. It's so complicated. There's a part of me that wants to try being together. And there's a part of me that's terrified of it. Things have been so insane and I don't think they're going to get simpler anytime soon. "

"I know."

Callie looked away. "I don't want you to hate me."

Brandon sighed. "I'm sorry. I know I wasn't fair to you before. But I could never hate you... When you were gone, I was scared that I'd never get to see you again. I wasn't sure what we'd do if we never found you. My life changed once you were part of it. And I think having you as my sister is a lot better than not having you at all."

"You'd really be okay with that?"

"Yeah, I'd get there," he admitted. It probably would be easier said than done - especially the next time she started dating someone else. But Brandon truly didn't want to add to Callie's burdens. "When do you have to decide?"

"I don't know… Nothing big in my life has ever been up to me. What if I make a mistake?"

Brandon shrugged. "What do you think is most important to you? Forget about me or Jude or the moms or anyone else - this is your life and your happiness. What do you want?"

* * *

Down in the kitchen, Stef looked up from the eggs she was scrambling with a fork when Brandon and Callie came into the kitchen. "Morning, B," she told her son.

"Hey."

Jude was also in the kitchen, and darted over to his sister in order to give her a hug. It was almost as if he was reassuring himself that Callie was still there. "Good morning," he told her.

"Morning, bud."

The kitchen was its normal whirlwind of activity. Sharon was talking with Jesus as they made bacon. Mariana got up from her place in the corner where she'd been talking on the phone.

"Hey, Mama - Grandma and Grandpa want to talk to you," she told Lena. Dana and Stewart had called that morning to check up on the family. They'd gotten a phone call late the previous night to let them know that Callie was back home.

Lena wiped her hands before taking the device. "Thanks. Can you take care of the oatmeal for me?" she asked her daughter.

"Sure."

"Jude, will you set the table, please?" Stef requested.

"I'll help," Brandon offered.

As they went to get the plates and silverware, Stef moved over to Callie's side. "Are you alright?" she softly asked her foster daughter.

She nodded. "Yeah, I think I am…" She hesitated for a moment, taking a deep breath. "You're sure that five kids isn't too many, right?"

Stef grinned when she realized what that question really meant - Callie had made a decision. "No, five kids is perfect."

"Okay... Do you want help with the eggs?" Stef handed Callie the bowl and let her go join her soon-to-be siblings that were cooking.

Lena stood next to her wife once she'd hung up the phone. "Everything okay?" she wondered.

"Couldn't be better," Stef told her as she gave her a kiss and they both took a moment to watch the organized chaos around them. Everyone was happy and home together at last. "We've got our family."

* * *

**Fin.**

**A/N 1: First of all, huge thank you to everyone for the feedback I received! This was not the original ending to this story (if anyone's interested, I can post that, too). Originally, I'd wanted to try my hand at Brallie since I'd gotten some requests during my last story. I was kind of surprised by how against it everyone was in their reviews. So... I decided not to go against what seems to be working. ;-)**

**A/N 2: For everyone who commented about having the story keep going, I see this fic as being like an episode. And since shows never have just 1 episode (unless they get cancelled REALLY fast), I've been working on a follow-up story. It's going to need some tweaking now that this one ended differently, but I should be posting again, soon. I'm also working on a separate fic inspired by Lena's conversation with Gretchen in "Clean." Stay tuned!**


	10. Alt Epilogue

**A/N: I got a couple requests to post the alternate Brallie ending for this story, so here it is. If you don't like them as a couple, please just stop reading now; I don't need to get your flames. Thanks!**

* * *

They talked for a few more minutes before the twins came downstairs, both apparently starving to death. While Stef and Lena started cooking breakfast, Callie slipped out of the kitchen and went back upstairs. In the hallway, she could hear faint music coming from Brandon's room; he was practicing piano. She quietly opened the door and slipped inside in order to listen.

"You can just come over here," he spoke up at one point while still playing.

"You heard me?"

"Yeah, there's a spot in the floor that creaks."

Callie smiled as she walked over to the doorway to his music nook. "What's this song?"

"Something new that I'm writing," he replied as he stopped and turned around. "It's about you."

She blushed. "You shouldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a mess."

"No, you're not. I know things are complicated, but... part of that is my fault. And the other part... you'll figure it out. We're all going to be here for you." He'd been terrified when he first heard from Wyatt what Callie was doing to herself. Then that had quickly been replaced by a deep resolve to help her. "So, your life is... colorful, but you're not a mess. And I like that my life got a lot more colorful once you were a part of it."

Callie looked away. "Seems like the main colors in my life are black and red."

Brandon got up and put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey. You'll find the rest of them, it just will take time. I told you before that you deserve to be happy. We'll find what makes you that way."

"What if that was you?" The words were out of her mouth before she'd even realized it.

He seemed equally surprised. "Uh, what?"

"Well... I just had the world's weirdest conversation with your moms."

"Our moms," he corrected her.

"Yeah, maybe not."

Brandon's eyes widened. "They're not sending you away, are they?" He took a step toward the door, all ready to go argue her case. Callie put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"No, they're not, but, um... They said that if we wanted to give 'us' a try... they wouldn't adopt me, but I could stay. And we could be together."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah... Although I'm not sure if THEY were serious."

He smiled. "I bet they were. My mom knows what it's like to have to follow your heart, and to hell with everything else."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, that was probably a pretty messy divorce..."

"Very... Wait, what about Jude?"

"They'll still adopt him."

"That's perfect!"

Callie sighed. "I'm still trying to figure out if this is a good idea... 'Us', I mean. Even if your moms aren't going to care... there are other things to worry about."

"I know. We'll be okay."

"I am not okay," she protested. "I'm not even close to okay right now. I want to be, but... I'm scared because I don't want to screw 'us' up, or screw myself up any worse."

Brandon took her hands. "The last thing I want is to make anything harder for you. We'll go slow."

"Are you sure this is what you want?" she couldn't keep from asking. "That I'm what you want?"

He smiled. "You're what I've wanted since the day you got here. Are YOU sure that you want to give up having a family for ME?" The choice seemed crazy to him.

"Your moms said I could always change my mind later," Callie informed him. "So I guess it'll work out either way."

"You mean - and not that I'm planning for this - but if things didn't work out with us, they would adopt you later?"

She nodded. The memory of Stef's exact words made her smile a little: _Whether it's when you're 17 or 37, we will always want you to be a part of this family_. "There are plenty of brothers and sisters out there that hate each other - we'd just have a unique reason for it."

"I could never hate you," Brandon promised.

"You think so?"

He looked her straight in the eye. "No, I know so."

Despite just agreeing that they needed to go slowly, Callie couldn't resist the urge to kiss him. The memory of their secret moment during the wedding was warm and comforting and she found herself giving in to temptation. Brandon was surprised at first, but he didn't pull away.

The door suddenly opened and they both stepped back, looking just as guilty as they felt. "Hey, what happened to knocking?" Brandon asked saw his mother standing there.

"It's my house," she easily replied. "You two have the same rules as everyone else; no closed doors if you're alone. And I was serious when I said that you better have more sense than Jesus."

"Of course we do," Brandon told her. "I know better than to try buying the morning after pill at the drugstore that's right around the corner from the house."

"Or the school," Callie added.

Stef grabbed a pillow off of her son's bed and threw it at them. "Show some sense BEFORE you get to that point!" They both laughed. "Mama's finishing breakfast and could use some help. So why don't you volunteer?"

Brandon shrugged. "Sure. We'll be down in a minute." Once Stef had left, he looked back to Callie. "Where were we?"

"Trying to taking things slow," she told him with a smile. "Though not being entirely successful."

"No, not really," he agreed. "This is going to be interesting, huh?"

"Definitely."


End file.
